THALLESEMIA

WHAT IS BLOOD MADE UP OF?

Blood is mostly
composed of innumerable red blood corpuscles and white blood corpuscles embedded
in straw colored liquid base called plasma. The life span of these blood
corpuscles is approximately four months. Blood corpuscles are constantly
manufactured in the hollow space inside the bones called bone marrow. The old
blood corpuscles disintegrate after four months and the new corpuscles take up
their place. Hence people can donate blood at regular intervals. The red blood
corpuscles contain hemoglobin – an important constituent that is responsible
for transporting oxygen to the various cells in the human body.

WHAT IS THALLESEMIA ?

Thallesemia is a
genetic disease wherein the hemoglobin structure is defective. The cause of this
defect lies with the genes/chromosomes of this individual.

Thallesemia
is of two types:

Thallesemia
trait (minor): In this case only one of the two genes responsible for
production of hemoglobin is defective.

Thallesemia
major: In this case both the genes are defective.

Thallesemia
major is an extremely serious disease. It is very prevalent in India. Every year
more than 7000 thallesemia major children are born in India, whereas there are
more than 1,00,000 such children born in the world.

In case of
thallesemia trait the person’s health and life in general is normal. Only when
both the parents are thallesemia minors is there a possibility of their child
being a thallesemia major. In case only one of the parent has thallesemia trait
there is no possibility of the child being thallesemia major.